Berkshire County’s largest healthcare provider says COVID-19 activity is trending upwards in the community.
Berkshire Health Systems says its community testing centers are seeing increased testing, patient calls and positive COVID-19 cases.
“The Delta virus is our predominant national virus strain circulating today," said Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer Dr. James Lederer. "It is addressed by the three main vaccines that we have available to us here in the US, and it does still cause significant illness and death in the unvaccinated. And so if you are in the unvaccinated status, it would be in your and your family's best interest to get vaccinated.”
Lederer says the most recent spike saw a peak of a 1.4% positive test rate, but around 800 test results over the weekend brought the county down back below 1%. The state average is around 1.5%.